Wonderful Wales…

It’s reluctantly back to school and work for us this week but we did manage to squeeze a camping holiday to Wales into the last week of the summer holidays. As always, I took my crochet with me but with better than expected weather, lots of great walks and places to visit, I didn’t get very much done. So I’ll share a few photos of some of the places we visited and yes, just a little crochet along the way…

I have connections with Wales although the last time I went there was in 1998 when my husband and I did a backpacking trek around the country (before children). My grandfather on my fathers side was from Wales and two of my children have Welsh names.

So to go back after all this time and rediscover this country was great- and it didn’t disappoint. It really has so many beautiful places and the people we met along the way were all so friendly.

Before we entered Wales we stopped overnight in Weston-Super -Mare. I’d never been before and we enjoyed it. I spotted this sign along the seafront- so true…

Our first stop in Wales was in Pembrokeshire where we stayed in a campsite near Little Haven, a lovely fishing village. Yet again, a coastline so different to where I live. We were only there for three nights but managed to see a lot…

We strolled around the village of Little Haven and came across a local craft fair with a name similar to that of my blog…

Inside were so many fabulous creations. We bought a little selection of homemade goods including some local honey and amazing peanut butter chocolate!

Outside we saw a gallery decorated with buoys. We have found many of these ourselves over the years but don’t display them like this. It certainly gave me some ideas…

We drove to the south coast of Pembrokeshire and visited St Govan’s Chapel- a centuries old chapel built into the cliff. We spent ages here clambering over the rocks as well as just sitting and gazing out to sea.

In the town of Pembroke we saw these big billboards advertising the Pembrokeshire coast. I rather liked them…

We visited another picturesque coastal village, Solva, and this is where we came across this amazing crocheted ‘yarn bomb’!

Isn’t it fabulous! I’d seen photos of this shared by other crochet lovers on Instagram and was so pleased to see it for myself. It certainly brightened this footpath sign…

One crochet project I did mange to complete myself during the holiday was a flower garland (a free gift with this months issue of Mollie Makes magazine). There was a perfect spot at the back of our campervan to hang the finished garland and it has certainly enhanced an already great view!

After three nights in Pembrokeshire we drove to North Wales and stayed two nights in Snowdonia. And yes, we all climbed to the summit of Mount Snowdon at 1085 metres and all the way back down. It was such a good day and gave us all a great sense of achievement. Definitely good for some positive family bonding!

After Snowdonia we went just a little further north and stayed for our last couple of days on the island of Anglesey. This was recommended to us by my parents who visited a few years ago and have encouraged us to go ever since. I fell in love with it. We stayed in a campsite near to Newborough Forest and we did a wonderful walk through the forest…

…which led out onto the widest of golden sandy beaches. With the backdrop of the Snowdonia mountains in the distance it was truly stunning…

Further along the beach there is a tidal island- Llanddwyn Island. We were lucky that the tide was out so we were able to walk onto the island and walk around the pathways, visit the secret hidden beaches and gaze out to sea from all angles. Having read a little about the island prior to visiting I had read descriptions of it as being ‘heavenly’ and ‘magical’. It really did feel like that to me whilst we were there…

We even saw Ravens in the forest when we walked back to the campsite…

Finally, on the very last day, we visited Conwy and its amazing medieval castle. It’s still so intact and you can climb the high towers. We actually ‘lost’ the children here for a while as they explored the castle on their own. Also in Conwy is the smallest house in Britain, a tiny house that was actually worth popping our heads into.

So if you’re reading this and live in Wales, may I say that I think you live in an amazing place. If you’re reading this and have never visited Wales before, then I highly recommend you do!

My only disappointment was that I didn’t buy any ‘proper’ Welsh wool or yarn. I visited a couple of yarn shops but they only stocked yarns that I can get in my local yarn shops. I really wanted some yarn unique to Wales but I obviously didn’t come across the right shops. Any recommendations of a good yarn shop in Wales anyone? Because it’s definitely somewhere I would like to return to sooner rather than later… 🙂

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28 comments

Love Wales! There is a yarn shop called Hanks in Menai, Anglesey, which has a brand called Sisterwolf that is hand dyed in their studio. Go on up the coast a bit to Beaumaris, and you’ll find another castle that your kids can get temporarily disappear in! I know of an organic wool produced in mid west Wales: Garthenor (shop in Tregaron), but I have no experience of the wool.. Good excuse to go back to Wales 🙂

I was in Wales last week! It feels like a million years ago now. You packed in loads!
We were in the west, and found the National Wool Museum. They had a few balls of proper welsh wool (spun right on site), which had the most wonderful smell. Sadly, it was also very itchy feeling and they only had three or four colours to choose from. I was excited at the prospect of a gift shop full of the stuff, but the reality was a bit different!

We read about the wool museum and I really wanted to go but we didn’t get there as we simply ran out of time – we were only in the south for three nights. I’d love to go back and I’ll do a bit more research about wool shops before I go! 🙂

I love Wales, we often go camping there. Your pictures are amazing, looks like you had a wonderful time. It must be lovely to be able to move around from place to place with the camper van. Lots of adventures to be had 😊

Hi Vicki, Thanks so much. Absolutely, we are lucky to have the van as it makes touring around that bit easier. We so fell in love with Wales although your photos of your holiday in Scotland also look great (that’s another place we haven’t been to with the kids!) Too many adventures to be had and not enough time! 🙂

What a lovely post – I almost felt like I was exploring with you! I’d love to do the camper van thing, but am afraid it might be too cramped for us, the dogs and two extremely boisterous boys. Love the flower garland addition, by the way:)

Thanks so much! We do love our campervan but got it nearly 7 years ago when the kids were a lot smaller. It is starting to be a little cramped in there but we recently added a little trailer for some extra sleeping and storage space. A blog post on that soon! 🙂

Not sure how I stumbled upon your blog, but glad I did. I have just read a post from when you stayed in Northern Spain and then a couple of click brought me here to Wales. Wales and Spain: two of my favourite places.

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Oh I do like to crochet beside the seaside! My name is Eleonora and I am a crochet designer and crochet blogger. I love to share my passion for crochet with others through my blog and on my Instagram and Facebook pages, providing plenty of inspiration and patterns. I also love to host workshops both locally and further afield. I have had many designs published in crochet magazines including 'Simply Crochet' and 'Inside Crochet'. I live by the sea on the south coast of England...